RSC launches Shakespeare toolkit for teachers
A new guide will enable more children to study Shakespeare by acting out the plays rather than merely reading them. The Toolkit underpins the Royal Shakespeare Company's Stand up for Shakespeare philosophy, which calls on all school children to experience Shakespeare live, start Shakespeare earlier and learn about Shakespeare through active teaching methods which get them on their feet.
Aimed at both Primary and Secondary Schools, the RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers launch coincides with a London schools tour of the RSC’s new Young People’s Shakespeare production of Hamlet, directed by Tarell Alvin McCraney and the publication of an independent report by the University of Warwick. The report shows that the RSC’s way of working with schools can lead to increased engagement by lower-achieving pupils, improved behaviour, especially amongst boys, and increased achievement for pupils of all abilities.
The RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers, published by Methuen Drama, an imprint of A&C Black, is an educational resource for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 teachers.
It has taken two years to get to publication. It combines accessible practical ways of playing with Shakespeare’s text with the intellectual rigour and active approaches which are part of the RSC’s rehearsal process.
It brings three of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in the classroom to life – Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pupils will be able to undertake drama-based explorations of the text, and there are teachers’ notes and accompanying worksheets for lesson by lesson teaching of each play. Every single exercise, lesson and strategy in the Toolkit has been tried out with countless teachers and pupils in schools all over the country.
‘Every year we work with over 2,500 teachers and 30,000 children and young people and they often tell us that the activities we introduce them to produce all kinds of interesting and significant results in the classroom,' Jacqui O’Hanlon, the RSC’s Director of Education said, 'from improved levels of attainment in reading and writing to increased levels of self-confidence and motivation.
‘We know that we can’t work in every classroom in the country and nor should we. What we wanted to do was create an easy-to-use resource which would offer a practical drama-based guide to teaching and appreciating Shakespeare for any teacher who wants to know more about how we work with text. We hope that teachers will become so confident about working in this way that they will be able to transfer the same approach to other texts.
‘I see the Toolkit as the crown jewels of everything we do. It is inspired by the work our legendary voice director, Cicely Berry OBE started over 25 years ago. Her mission was and is to breathe life into Shakespeare’s words.
Aimed at both Primary and Secondary Schools, the RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers launch coincides with a London schools tour of the RSC’s new Young People’s Shakespeare production of Hamlet, directed by Tarell Alvin McCraney and the publication of an independent report by the University of Warwick. The report shows that the RSC’s way of working with schools can lead to increased engagement by lower-achieving pupils, improved behaviour, especially amongst boys, and increased achievement for pupils of all abilities.
The RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers, published by Methuen Drama, an imprint of A&C Black, is an educational resource for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 teachers.
It has taken two years to get to publication. It combines accessible practical ways of playing with Shakespeare’s text with the intellectual rigour and active approaches which are part of the RSC’s rehearsal process.
It brings three of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in the classroom to life – Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pupils will be able to undertake drama-based explorations of the text, and there are teachers’ notes and accompanying worksheets for lesson by lesson teaching of each play. Every single exercise, lesson and strategy in the Toolkit has been tried out with countless teachers and pupils in schools all over the country.
‘Every year we work with over 2,500 teachers and 30,000 children and young people and they often tell us that the activities we introduce them to produce all kinds of interesting and significant results in the classroom,' Jacqui O’Hanlon, the RSC’s Director of Education said, 'from improved levels of attainment in reading and writing to increased levels of self-confidence and motivation.
‘We know that we can’t work in every classroom in the country and nor should we. What we wanted to do was create an easy-to-use resource which would offer a practical drama-based guide to teaching and appreciating Shakespeare for any teacher who wants to know more about how we work with text. We hope that teachers will become so confident about working in this way that they will be able to transfer the same approach to other texts.
‘I see the Toolkit as the crown jewels of everything we do. It is inspired by the work our legendary voice director, Cicely Berry OBE started over 25 years ago. Her mission was and is to breathe life into Shakespeare’s words.